


Constellations

by Hyarrowen



Category: Green Knowe Series - Lucy M. Boston
Genre: Gen, Obscure and British Commentfest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 10:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4096918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyarrowen/pseuds/Hyarrowen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mrs Oldknowe tells Tolly some of  the stories in the sky.</p><p>Written for p_m_cryan's prompt:<em> Stargazing</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Constellations

Tolly was sitting out on the lawn, a little way away from St Christopher. In his hands was the telescope his father had given him, and he was looking through it at the heavens. 

“It's like looking up through the chimneys, except that it shows so many things you can't see otherwise. It's a magic glass!”

Mrs Oldknow, sitting on a chair that Boggis had brought out that afternoon, along with a rickety table, and a stool for Tolly, looked up. Rather stiffly; her neck was not as supple as it had once been, and the night was mild but certainly not warm.

“It's like being inside a great black egg,” said Tolly, “but there are freckles in it. What sort of bird would hatch out of an egg like that?”

“Oh, I should think a great black eagle. Or a great black swan. Or a whole universe.”

“You can't have a universe hatch out of an egg! It would be much too big!”

“Well, perhaps not. I don't know what the mother bird would look like! But I can show you the eagle, and the swan, if you'd like.”

“Where?” Tolly craned round, as if expecting them to come swooping in over the lawn.

“Down there towards the south. Near the horizon. You see that very bright star? And another, not far from it? Well, those are Deneb and Altair. They belong to the constellations of the Swan and the Eagle.”

Tolly surveyed them through the telescope. Now it was getting darker, it was more like looking through a kaleidoscope, because he could imagine tiny glints of colour there. “They don't look much like birds.”

“The constellations don't often look like what they're supposed to be. Orion looks like a giant, of course, but his dogs and the Hare don't look at all like those creatures.”

“Dogs? A hare? Like Orlando and Watt?”

“Yes, just like them! And there are other things in the sky that you might like. Your telescope, for instance. A river. Horses.”

“Feste!”

“He'd be one of the Little Horses.”

Tolly frowned, unseen in the dark of the great black egg. But Grandmother must have heard the frown, even in the dark. “The big horse is Pegasus himself. A winged horse. Feste would be in the herd that follows him.”

“Hm.” Tolly shifted around on the grass. “So the sky is full of animals!”

“Absolutely full, fuller than Noah's Ark! If we look in the old book-case, we might find a star-map and I can show you the rest of them.” It was getting damp, and the river-mist was creeping towards them.

“We'll go in, then. Let me help you up, Grandmother!”

She put her hand on the bony young shoulder, and pushed herself up out of the chair. “Now, the star-map is in an atlas which belonged to Captain Oldknow. We'll see what else we can find. He sailed so far across the seas that he saw constellations we can't see from here: right down into the Southern Hemisphere. He would have seen the Southern Cross, and the Telescope, and maybe even the Peacock.”

“Noisy bird...”

They went indoors (and many feet followed them, silently) and found the big book in an oak bookcase.

Tolly pointed to the embossed letters in the worn leather of the cover. “That says it's a Neptune, not an atlas! Neptune!”

“Yes, that's what they called sea-atlases in the olden days. And of course the Captain used a sea-atlas! Put it on the table, and we'll see what we can find.”

Tolly laid it flat, and carefully opened the boards of the cover. His telescope lay on the table next to it, and Mrs Oldknow smiled to see the naval still-life. The smell of a couple of centuries breathed up at them as he turned the pages.

“That's the star-map.” She stopped his hand as he leafed through the book. Two circles on opposite pages, full of animals, and strange scientific instruments, and human figures – and -

“A ship! A ship in the sky!” It was huge, covering a full quarter of a hemisphere. Stars lay beneath its keel; clashing rocks were to one side, and a whirlpool on the other.

“That's the Argo, the most famous ship that ever sailed the Seven Seas. I expect Captain Oldknow liked that constellation, being a naval man himself. I'll tell you the story of the Argo, if you want. And we might even find out if we can see Neptune, the planet – it's right out almost at the edge of the Solar System. We'd have to go to the library to ask where it is now – but I bet you could see it through the telescope on a clear night!”

Tolly's head was full of stars, and planets, and gods, and fish, and it got fuller as the evening drew in while Mrs Oldknow told him the story of the Argonauts; and Captain Oldknow's daughter, and the many other children of Green Knowe, crowded close beside him in the firelight to hear Grandmother tell the tale.


End file.
